Ok. Background. I'm a Sephora junkie girlie girl. And I love this movie. For me, this is an important caveat. This is not just a guy movie. It's ridiculously good and the "I'm your huckleberry" scene is one I can watch over and over transfixed. Val Kilmer is that good. This is Val Kilmer at his best. Kurt Russell is phenomenal and tell me a movie that Sam Elliot sucked in. I dare you. Because he's awesome in everything. Guys ultimate movie? Yes. Women? Well, if they're not moronic vacuous creatures, yep, they'll love it. Or they should anyway.

Written & submitted before 2010- please show it to me

Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and Earp's two brothers try early retirement, but can't seem to escape the notoriety of their gunslinging past. It's a bit on the shallow, simplistic side, but machismo levels are off the charts and the strong personalities are endlessly entertaining, bouncing around and ricocheting off one another like careless lead sprayed on a dusty street. Earp gets the marquee treatment, but there's no masking that Holliday is the story's real star. Played with an overdose of charisma by Val Kilmer, Doc is a vastly intriguing character; damaged both mentally and physically, he spends the entire film in some combination of deep intoxication and sweaty near-death, brought on by the later stages of tuberculosis. Doesn't matter. He still gets the best lines, the most memorable scenes and the densest, most complete individual storyline. A staggering, winking car-wreck of a man who's simply impossible to look away from, I'd throw him up against any of cinema's all-time greats. The surrounding film is secondary. We get a heavy dose of gunfights, shady characters and gentlemen who look cool in an absurd mustache and a duster, par for the course given the era and genre. But Doc, man, Doc elevates this film from a stylish also-ran to an absolute classic.

There are two main film versions based on the life of infamous outlaw Wyatt Earp: a serious, sombre one with Kevin Costner (and a whole lot of others), and a rolkicking circus sideshow starring Kurt Russell, bedazzled with a jaw dropping supporting cast that doesn't quit. Both films are great, but if you held a six shooter to my head and demanded a preference, I'd have to give Tombstone the edge. It's just too much fun, one wild screamer from start to finish, filled with swashbuckling deeds, evil outlaws and bawdy gunfights galore. It should have been called It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World In The Wild West. Kurt Russell is in mustache mode again here, but looks younger and leaner than last year's western double feature his mutton chops starred in. Along with his brothers Virgil (Sam Elliott) and Norman (Bill Paxton) he arrives in Tombstone with a life of law enforcement in his dust and designs on retirement and relaxation. He gets pretty much the opposite though, when every lowlife bandit and villain in the area comes crawling out of the woodwork to give him trouble. Michael Biehn is the worst of them as crazy eyed Johnny Ringo, a deadly smart and ruthless killer, and Powers Boothe hams it up terrifically as drunken scoundrel Curly Bill Brocius. They are the two main causes of grief for the Earps, backed up by all sorts of goons including Michael Rooker, Billy Bob Thornton and a petulant Stephen Lang as Ike Clanton. Russell is joined by an off the wall Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, the wheezy southern prince with a silver tongue that's constantly fuelled by booze. He gives the best work of the film, and it's fascinating to compare it to its counterpart, Dennis Quaid's turn in the other version. There's also great work from Billy Zane, Dana Delaney, Thomas Haden Church, Paula Malcomson, Tomas Arana, Johanna Pacula, Paul Ben Victor, Robert John Burke, John Corbett, Terry O Quinn, Robert Mitcham and even Charlton Heston good lawd what a cast. The standoffs, both verbal and physical, are a thing of beauty and the reason we go to the movies. Of all the westerns out there, this has just got to be the most fun. It's constantly alive, there's always something going on, a cheeky glint in its eye and a vitality in every corner of every frame, like a kid that won't sit still. Russell is a champ as Earp, a no nonsense killer, plain and simple, but a man of both style and charisma, two weapons that are equally as important as his side arms. Kilmer gets all the best lines and goes to town with his portrayal, creating electric tension whenever he faces off with Biehn, who is equally mesmerizing in a more intense way. The three of them kill it, and along with the howling mess hall of a supporting cast, make this simply the liveliest western I've ever seen in the genre.